What is the "foreknowledge view" of predestination?

This is the version of predestination that I lean more toward.  In this view, God in His omniscience already knows eternity.  He can see the beginning and the ending of time.  He already sees how the tapestry will look.  Therefore, He knows who will answer the call and know ahead of time who will enter the gates.

Sproul (author of Chosen by God) disagrees with this stance though he once was in support of this in the past.  He believes that we can only answer God's call because He has called.  The calling comes first.  The acceptance second.  I tend to believe that but that the only calls those that He knows will answer.  He might send us to witness to someone who might not be called but it might be more for our benefit and not for the other person's. 

As I read more on this topic in comparing the "foreknowledge" vs. the "reformed" view, I feel that it comes more to semantics.  In the end we all have to answer on accepting Christ as our Savior or not.  It does not excuse us from witnessing and doing our part of the great commission.

Chosen by God - a Review

My daughter had to read Chosen by God written by RC Sproul.  Since she would be asking questions, I decided to read the book before her so that I could be prepared.  I did not realize how much I would enjoy it and get into it.

It is not what you would call a "pleasure book".  You don't just pick it up and think that you will have a good rest by the fire.  It is a book that could cause confusion, deep thought, and even a fight or two.  The topic it addresses is predestination.

Predestination is the thought that God has chosen you before you were even born.  Now, there are variations of that thought that Mr. Sproul discusses in his book.  This topic has caused many a fight in Christian and even non-Christian circles.  It can get a discussion going and can get it heated just as fast. 

Before reading this book, my thoughts on the subject was that since God knows our hearts and since He exists outside our dimensions, He can see ahead and knows whether or not we will accept Him and acts accordingly.   Mr. Sproul takes a different stance.  He feels that God decides ahead of time who will accept Him and those and only those He calls and they will answer.

I was not too sure how to take much of this as I read it.  But in several sections, he was able to give me food for thought.  The verses he pulled seemed to support his stance.  Being a dedicated student of the Bible, I looked up the verses myself, read the passages before and and after, and even checked various translations.  They still seemed to support His stance. 

In this work, Mr. Sproul also gets more into the Calvinistic view and discusses the acronym "TULIP".  I had heard about it before, but never really fully understood it.  He really laid it out plainly and explained it very well.  I learned a lot from that section. 

One of the things I enjoyed about his work was that he discusses the other views on predestination.  I got a better understanding of them all and got a deeper look at free will.  When it came to my stance, I actually read it a couple of times to understand why he believed that stance was wrong.

I'm not perfect, and I'm still learning.  Just because I was taught something does not make it completely right.  I need to get the full story and decide for myself.  Even the Apostle Paul said that we were to test our believes to make sure that man-made ones have not crept in and tradition has not taken over the basic believes.

My husband is the one I turn to much of the time to ask the deep questions since he has attended seminary.  We had several discussions that were very educational.  I learned a lot.  When I was done, I actually wanted to re-read the book to get deeper into and chew on it some more.

In the end, where did I end up?  Did Mr. Sproul change my stance?  Not really.  I'm not saying that I'm still right and he is wrong.  But I am thinking more on the subject of predestination than I ever have.  In that regard, I would say that Mr. Sproul was successful.  Predestination is not a subject I run from now.  It is something I want to dig into and learn more about.  But as my loving husband says, "In the end it is all in God's hands anyway."

Thank you Mr. Sproul for an excellent book and some thought-provoking topics.

God Using Sinful People

A great question that have been asked is if God can use sinful people in accomplishing His will.  Does He?

From my research and studies, I would have to answer "yes".  Throughout the Bible there is so much evidence of Him using people and their sinful natures.  One of the earliest ones that gets discussed is Pharaoh.  I think that everyone can agree Pharaoh had a little bit of a sinful nature.  He wasn't what you would call a righteous person. But the question then comes down to if God actually used him.  Read Exodus again.  God knew Pharaoh's heart.  He knew when the ruler would cave in and when his stubbornness would rule.  He knew the final result.  And He used the sinful man to accomplish His will.  The Hebrew people were released.  God was glorified. 

Proverbs 16:9 says, "In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps."  In the end, God's will wins out.  There are always sinful people in this world.  You cannot avoid them.  They are in every aspect of our lives.  What wonderful way to show God's glory by His use of them!  Not even they can avoid His power and His plan.

The sinful people used?  Herod, Judas, and Pilot.  How about the ones in your own life?  God uses sinful people to teach us lessons, help us grow, and advance to the next level of our spiritual growth. 

Why would God avoid using sinful people?  Some would argue because He is so holy and righteous therefore He cannot use the sin of other people.  Why not?  Is that His weakness?  All someone has to do is be evil enough that God won't be able to touch them and use them?  There is the hole in the argument.

You have to ask yourself these questions:

• Is God's power limited?
• Does anyone have power over God?
• Can anyone thwart God?
• Who has complete power?

If you answer "no" to the first three and God for the last, then how can you take a stand that God cannot use sinful people to accomplish His will?

This is a question to spark hours of theological discussions.  It also leads to the fact that God can use your own sinful actions to accomplish His will and show His glory.  How humbling!  Not even my own acts can alter the plan.  In the end He will prevail and I will witness His glory!

Omnibus - Genesis

Should a person be rewarded or punished for the actions of another?

This question shouldn't prove that difficult.  Yet, when my daughter had to answer it for school I was hard pressed to find a good answer.  I was confident in my stance on this but to put it into words and argue it was a whole other matter.

At first you want to answer no.  It doesn't seem fair.  Why should someone else's actions cause me to be punished?    That is when I realized that this answer cannot be answered as a strict yes or no.  Like most things in life, it is not as cut and dry.

When a person joins a team, they agree to be part of a body.  When one person messes up, it effects the whole team.  When one person rolls a strike or hits a home run, the team feels the same effects.  The rewards and the punishments do effect everyone else.  No one screams that it is unfair.  It is accepted as part of being a member of a team.

When a member of a family breaks the law, should the family also suffer the same punishment?  Now, that is a different matter isn't it?  When one person wins the lottery, should everyone get a piece of the pie?  Though we want to say yes, it is not fair.  In these situations, we would say no to that question.

How far should the results reach?  I could now argue that when a person breaks the law, the family does suffer.  They might not have to go to jail with them, but they do suffer.  They do feel the pain.  They do not escape.  When someone wins the lottery, life changes.  Other people are effected.

We might not all suffer the same fate and at times we just might.  But we never get to avoid it totally.  The actions of one person always effects someone else.  Even the actions done in secret effect others and can destroy them.  Why?  Because we do not go through life alone.  We are not solitary islands.  We are all one body.  We might be part of a family, a culture, a team, a church, but in the end we are part of mankind.

Should we receive punishment or reward for others actions?  Yes, because we are together as one.

Omnibus - Genesis

How Long Did it Take God to create the world?

The book gave me three views on how long the creation of the world took.  The assignment called to argue for each one and then finally to choose the one I agree with and discuss it.  I believe in the actual seven day creation.

Several other views of the length of creation have merit and are something to think about.  I have to give them that.  But I come from the viewpoint that when something is not supposed to be taken literal, the Bible's context and writing style scream this fact.  In the first chapters of Genesis, this is not the case.  The word used throughout the creation is day.  An argument against this was that since there was no moon and sun in the first few days how could you measure day.  That is a good point and should be looked at closer.  When you look closer you see where on the very first day, God created light and dark.  The scriptures specifically state that there was a morning and an evening.  There was a measure of day.  The sun and moon were not present but God overrode that fact with His own glory.  Per the Bible on the first day the morning and evening and therefore the day was defined before any thing else was created. 

In the end, it does not matter how long it took.  God created it and it was done with amazing power and humor.  To argue such things can fall under the foolish discussions that Paul talked about.  It rarely gets anywhere and usually ends up in anger and arrogance.

Omnibus

My daughter is homeschooled and is in the Omnibus program for Veritas Press.  Being a learner at heart, this program just had my mouth watering.  It is said to be for seventh grade, but so much of it I did not read until college.  It is a great program that really gets you thinking.  It exposes the student to a wide range of literature and history including non-Christian ones.  This program prepares the student so well for college that I feel like college ought to be a breeze once going through the program.  I'll be going through the program with my daughter and discussing a few of the questions from the books here.  I hope that you will begin to thirst for more and look into the program yourself.  Every now and then, I'll jump to another piece of literature and discuss it.  Each title will note if it is from the Omnibus program so you can follow it easier.

Let's continue learning!!!!